Into the Wild and Unknown
by Cosmic-gurl
Summary: Rory must attend a chilton camp. What will happen when Rory gets lost with someone else in the woods? RT
1. Default Chapter

Into the Wild and Unknown  
  
A Trory by Leela  
  
Pairing: R/T as if I'd write anything else! Rating: PG13 Disclaimer: I own nothing of Gilmore Girls, I have no money, plz don't sue me! Author's note: Ok, so I'm back with a new story. For those of you that have been reading my other fic, A kiss, a blush, a smirk, a love, don't worry, I will complete it...eventually! I just need to take some time away from it, and I had this little idea for a new fic, so I thought I'd give it a bit of a go. Hope you enjoy it.  
  
Chapter one  
  
Rory stared blankly at the note she held in her hand. The Chilton letterhead was printed at the top, immediately signaling to Rory that she would more than likely dislike the contents of the remaining letter. As she continued to read it, the frown etched across her face grew deeper and deeper with dread. Rory finished reading the main section of the letter before coming across a line written in bold that froze her insides. She let out a groan, for it read 'compulsory, all students to attend'.  
  
Rory scrunched up the letter and stuffed it into her bag. She started to think up reasons as to why she couldn't go. Her grandfather was sick in hospital. No, that wouldn't work; her grandparents were friends with principal Charleston and his wife. Her mom was having a heart transplant. No, too many questions would be asked. She was allergic to nature and the wilderness. That would definitely fall under the unbelievable category. Rory let out another frustrated groan. Nothing, there was nothing she could do to get out of it. The bell rang, causing Rory to quickly jump out of her seat, grab her bag, and head towards the bus. The sooner she got out of Hell the better.  
  
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Rory ran up the driveway, jumping over the lawn mower that for some reason lay out in the middle of the yard. She bounded up the front steps and crashed through the door.  
  
"Mom! Mom!" Rory yelled hysterically, as she dumped her bag in the foyer, books, pens and paper spilling out everywhere.  
  
"What! What's wrong? What's happened? Are you hurt? Do I need to kick someone's ass?" Replied Lorelai running out of the kitchen frantically whilst attempting to administer a band aid to her index finger.  
  
"Yes, you do, the evil, conniving henchman of Chilton", Rory said seriously, "And why do you need a band aid? What's Morris doing sitting in the front of the yard?"  
  
"He bit me", Lorelai replied pouting.  
  
"He bit you? Why would he bite you? He's never shown any hostility towards us before?"  
  
"Well I guess we misjudged his personality because he's mean and nasty".  
  
"Mom...what did you do? Were you trying to mow the lawn?" Rory asked sternly.  
  
"No...I just thought I'd take him... for a walk", Lorelai replied weakly.  
  
"You were trying to mow the lawn. You were trying to be domestic", Rory said, pointing a stern finger at her mother.  
  
"Ok", Lorelai replied defeated, "I thought I'd try and become more self- sufficient, one of those 'Jane of all trades', woman that can do any form of domestic or menial work".  
  
"Mom, you know that you aren't, and never will be one of those women, I'm sorry" Rory said, patting Lorelai on the back. "Just call Pete. Morris likes him enough not to bite him, ok?"  
  
"Yeah, ok. So..." Lorelai began to say, cheering up, "Why do I have to kick the Chilton Henchman's ass?"  
  
"This is why", Rory said, thrusting the letter she had received in class into her mother's hand.  
  
Lorelai read through the letter carefully before looking back to Rory, a smile shining across her face,  
  
"Mom, your smiling" Rory said dumbfounded.  
  
"I know", replied Lorelai matterofactly.  
  
"Chilton want to dump me, your only daughter, your own flesh and blood, in the middle of the woods, to sleep in an old wooden cabin and force me to sing koom-by-ahh around the campfire, and you're smiling! Are you insane? Has your detour down Domestic Lane made you completely crazy? Maybe you lost more blood than you thought, perhaps we should take you to the hospital, they can give you a transfusion of outrage."  
  
"Come on sweety, you'll have fun! I wish I'd gotten to go camping. Now you can go, and I can live through you!"  
  
"Or, maybe you could go in my place!" Rory said hopefully, "We have the same name, so it'll be marked off on the roll that I'm there, even though I'm not!"  
  
"Honey, I think they'll be able to tell the difference between the older and the younger Lorelai Gilmore. I may look astonishly young, but even I couldn't look 16." Lorelai said modestly.  
  
"Yeah, I know" Rory said glumly as she sat herself down on the couch.  
  
Lorelai sat down beside her, "Just go, you might even find that you'll enjoy yourself, and you never know what you could learn". Rory looked at Lorelai doubtfully. "Besides, one of us needs to know how to keep us alive in Indiana Jane and the Quest for the Coffee Holy Grail!"  
  
"Ooo, I think I know where I can find that!" Rory said cheering up.  
  
"You do! How?"  
  
"Well, provided you can save yourself from getting attacked by Morris, and any other form of gardening tool and inanimate object, I think we might just be able to make it to Luke's!"  
  
"Honey, if we have to blow up Morris with a hand grenade, we'll make it to Luke's!" Lorelai replied as they both grabbed their coats and raced out the door.  
  
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The following week flew by way too quickly for Rory's liking. No matter how much her mother had encouraged her that the school trip would be fun and exciting, Rory just couldn't help but look towards Monday with resounding doom. What was worse was the fact that they were leaving Chilton bright an early at exactly 6am, a time that didn't register in the Gilmore house.  
  
Rory sat in the lounge room, her large and overstuffed pack sitting on the floor at her feet while Lorelai ran around the house finding clothes to wear and trying to make coffee. Finally she ran out of the kitchen and dumped four coffee thermos's in Rory's lamp.  
  
"For the bus trip. Hopefully by the time you get there the caffeine will have effectively woken you up and you can begin to enjoy yourself!" Rory looked doubtfully at her mother, but thanked her anyway. "Right then, lets hit the road!"  
  
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Rory sat on the bus, watching as her mother drove away. She didn't know how she was going to survive the three nights and four days without her mother, and spending it with her fellow classmates in the middle of nowhere made the prospect of being without her best friend even more depressing. Rory sensed someone sitting down beside her, and shifted over a little closer to the window to give the person a bit more room.  
  
"Maybe you should shift a little the other way", said a familiar cocky voice in Rory's ear. Rory looked over and was met with Tristan's smirking face, "I know you secretly wish to be close to me!"  
  
"Tristan I wouldn't want to get close to you if I had hypothermia and my life depended on it. Go and sit somewhere else" Rory replied coldly.  
  
"Well, you might want to get you used to it Mary, I have a feeling we are going to be spending a lot of time together on this trip" Tristan replied, tapping his nose knowingly.  
  
Rory groaned and turned back to the window as the bus began to drive away from the Chilton grounds. Yep, Rory was definitely on her way to her worst nightmare.  
  
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Ok, the chapter has come to an end, and you know what you must do! It's time to click the little blue button and review, review, review!! 


	2. Chapter 2

Into the Wild and Unknown  
  
A Trory by Leela  
  
Pairing: R/T as if I'd write anything else! Rating: PG13 Disclaimer: I own nothing of Gilmore Girls, I have no money, plz don't sue me! Author's note: Ok, so I'm back with a new story. For those of you that have been reading my other fic, A kiss, a blush, a smirk, a love, don't worry, I will complete it...eventually! I just need to take some time away from it, and I had this little idea for a new fic, so I thought I'd give it a bit of a go. Hope you enjoy it.  
  
Chapter Two  
  
Rory sat staring out of the window. The scenery flashed by, but she was unable to focus her mind on what she was seeing. Beside her, Tristan sat bobbing his head in time with the beats that issued out from his headphones.  
  
Rory studied his features, his messy blonde hair, chiseled jaw and lips, and his eyes, pools of blue that seemed to hide so much. Rory could understand why all the girls swooned at his feet, kissing the ground he walked. She wasn't blind, she knew he was gorgeous. But what Rory couldn't fathom was what it was he kept hidden.  
  
She had long ago discovered that, as annoying as it was, his cocky, self- knowing and egotistic attitude was a smoke screen, a character he hid behind. She had glimpsed something of the real Tristan the night they had kissed at Madeline's party. The sadness and confusion she had seen in his eyes was unmistakable, but she couldn't help but wonder if its roots were buried in an entirely different matter than the simplicity of his breakup with summer, even if he did seem to like her a lot. After all, Tristan seemed to go through a new girl every week, so why had Summer dumping him caused such a depressed reaction? Perhaps her actions had bruised his ego, or maybe it had been the public humiliation.  
  
Rory dismissed these ideas, she had the feeling that it was more than that. On occasions in class when she glanced at him, she often caught him in a brooding mood, as if his whole being had been transported to some other dark and lonely place. Of course, then he would catch her staring at him, and his cocky self would be back in an instant with that smirk he wore as a mask, and he'd bug her all day about staring at him in class.  
  
But still, Rory found herself wanting to know the real Tristan, to peel the layers away and discover who he really was, to unravel the enigma within.  
  
Tristan could feel her staring at him. He could see that intrigued yet confused look that she always had on her face when she watched him. He could sense that she was getting alarmingly close to discovering the façade he put on was fake. Then again, being so smart, she had probably figured it out all ready. Yet in spite of that, he still did it, his insecurities and inner demons always caused him to hide behind his cocky, god-like attitude whenever they spoke, or bantered.  
  
He was haunted by the kiss they had shared at Madeline's party. He revisited that moment every night in his sleep. Every night she ran away from him, and Tristan knew she always would.  
  
He wished he could break down the wall he had built up around himself and show her who he really was. He longed to drop the act, but he only wanted to show her, and it was too hard to do so without the whole of Chilton discovering him as well, and that was something he could not bare. So he continued to play his part, play the character he was born into, while each act killed him inside just a little bit more. He would be who they wanted him to be, who they thought he was, and Rory would be no exception.  
  
"Just can't keep your eyes off me, can you Mary?" Tristan asked not looking at her. He turned around, leaning closer to her and whispered huskily in her ear, "Like what you see?"  
  
Rory fought to control the blush that begun to seep into her cheeks. She leaned back from Tristan, banishing the tingles she felt at his warm breath on her neck.  
  
"If you consider yourself to be a cocky, egotistical God, then no Tristan, I don't like what I see." Rory replied coldly.  
  
"So you think me worthy of worship?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You just called me a God, so you must think me worthy of worship. It's ok, I give you permission, I'll even make you my high priestess if you wish? That way, you'll never have to leave my side and you can stare at me anytime you want." Tristan answered seriously.  
  
"Thanks for the amazing offer Tristan", Rory said sarcastically, "But the only thing I worship is a coffee machine." Rory continued, all signs of sarcasm gone.  
  
Tristan chuckled. They had only been on the road for little over an hour, but in that time, Rory had managed to consume four flasks of coffee, and Tristan was utterly surprised that she wasn't bouncing off the walls of the bus from that amount of caffeine.  
  
"Pray, fair lady, forgive me for the assumption that I could replace the God of all Gods." Tristan said as he attempted to bow to her, "I know your faith in the elixir runs so deeply through your veins...literally!"  
  
Rory laughed, and there it was, a small glimpse of the real Tristan, hidden in his genuine, and stunningly beautiful smile he gave her in return.  
  
"Why do you do it Tristan?" Rory asked seriously, the smile fading from her face.  
  
"Do what?" Tristan asked absentmindly as he changed the CD in his discman and turned to her.  
  
"Hide behind this wall you have built around yourself?"  
  
Rory saw a glimpse of fear flicker through Tristan's face before it was gone and he replied flatly, "I don't know what you're talking about."  
  
"I know your secret Tristan. I know you hide behind this character you put on, that you live through. I just want to know why? It confuses me, Tristan, 'cause I know you are so much more than that. I wish I could know who you really are."  
  
"Well I'm sorry you find me so confusing Rory", Tristan replied, his defensive barrier going up, "Perhaps you should just mind your own business and give your over-active imagination a rest. I'm not hiding behind anything. I am what I am, and if you don't like it, then you'll just have to deal", Tristan said coldly as he put his head phones in and lost himself in the heavy beats of Metallica.  
  
Rory turned sadly to stare blankly out of the window again. She realized she may have pushed him too far, that she should've kept her mouth shut. But her desire to know the real Tristan hadn't let her. Still, his coldness and defensiveness had proved her suspicions that there definitely was another side to the blue eyed enigma.  
  
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An hour later, the bus pulled into the gates of the Apostle's Nine Reserve, and Rory got her first glimpse of the hell she would be forced to endure for the next few days. The bus pulled into a small parking lot, and Rory was stunned to see how eager most of the students were to begin their wilderness adventure.  
  
Tristan got up, grabbed his bag, and joined the cue of students filing off the bus without so much as a backward glance at Rory. Sighing, she gathered her belongings and made her way off the bus and to the cleared area in front of what looked like a dining hall where the rest of her classmates had assembled. Once the last few stragglers had joined them, their teacher called for silence as she begun to address the students.  
  
"Welcome to Apostle's Nine Reserve" she said briskly, 'I would like to introduce you to Joe Murray, who is the Senior Camp Leader and a National Parks Officer."  
  
Joe smiled warmly at the students in front of him. He had a rugged yet handsome appearance, was young, around twenty five, and had blonde dreadlocks and green eyes. Rory could see a number of girls practically drooling at the sight of him, Madeline and Louise being two of them.  
  
"Now," the teacher continued, "You will be placed into your cabin groups, who will also be your assigned team. Each girl and boy team will be given a colour. The two teams with the same colour will be working together on the tasks set out over the next few days. Once placed in your team, you can not change. I would also like to take the opportunity to tell you that the purpose of this trip is to build character and moral standing, to learn how to survive in a foreign environment, and most importantly, learning how to work and achieve goals as a team."  
  
As the teacher went on about the 'values and skills' they would be acquiring, Rory found her mind wandering again to Tristan. He was standing a little away from his group of friends, staring absently into the trees, lost in his own world again. Rory shook her head, mentally berating herself for thinking about him. Why should she care anyway? It's not like she could make him change. She focused her attention again at the teacher.  
  
"Now, breakfast will be served at 8-9 in the Mess Hall behind me, as will lunch at 12-1 and dinner at 6-7. Lights out is at 10:30pm, after which there is to be no leaving your cabins, except for emergencies. You are also forbidden to go into the cabin or shower blocks of the opposite sex, and if you go into the woods, do not leave the track and do not go alone. After lunch today, you may spend the rest of the day as you wish. Now, line up to receive your team colour and cabin number."  
  
Rory joined the cue of chatting students. She hoped that she would be assigned to a team with people that were at least nice and mildly interesting. Knowing her luck however, she would probably be teamed up with Paris, who was still being remarkably hostile and stubborn after Rory's little matchmaking foray.  
  
As she got to the front of the line, the teacher handed Rory a purple bandana and the news that her team mates were Madeline, Louise, and Paris. She had been foolish to hope that for just once she'd be assigned to a different group.  
  
Rory made her way back to the bus to gather her bags before making her way to the cabin, noticing as she passed that Tristan also had a purple bandana.  
  
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The chapter is over, and you know what you must do, Click the little blue button and review, review, review!! 


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